This weekend Eric and I took a surprise visit to see Tim and Jenni in their three month apartment in Oklahoma. It wasn't necessarily a surprise for them, but more for me. On Wednesday Eric came home from work and said, "Hey, let's go visit Jenni and Tim this weekend." What a great idea!

We had a great time time. If any of you have ever been to OK you know that there are several toll booths. What a hassle right? Well, not for Eric and I.

One tradition that Eric and I have started over our year of marriage is to read books when we take long drives. Obviously, I read them outloud...Anyway, we were carrying on our tradition and it was a really great book (and the Shofar Blew, if you want to read it) so I was at a really good part and Eric was listening intently. All of the sudden Eric says..."am I supposed to be over there?" I looked up and we were driving right by the toll booths...Oops...he had accidently taken the PikePass lane.

Now what? Neither one of us had ever done anything like that so we weren't really sure what to expect. Would there be a cop waiting for us at the next toll booth? Did we just get our picture taken and we would get our ticket in the mail later?

Not sure what to do I called my dad and told him the situation. He offered the advice that we just wait till we get to the next booth and tell them what had happened.

So we drove on, both a little paranoid about missing the next toll booth.

We finally made it there and when we got to the booth, thankfully the man was super nice. I am sure that he has gotten people who have done that before, because when we told him what had happened he really wasn't surprised he just gave us the solution.

He said that the fine is $25 and that it would come in the mail. He said if it didn't come within 60-90 days we probably hadn't gotten caught, but if they did send us something, he gave us a number to call and told us to tell them that we had paid at the next one.

Shew... We were very relieved after that, but I must admit, the rest of the trip there and back everytime we were passing a toll booth I would look up from my book just to make sure we were in the correct lane.

So we had a great time with Jenni and Tim and are so glad that we were able to go. Saturday morning the boys went to play Disc Golf. We girls went and did what girls do best. We went shopping.

After everyone returned from their various activities we all went to the Witchita Mountains and hiked. (i will post those pictures later)

Another fun part about our trip was our dinner at Red Lobster. Mmmmm....Delic. I think Eric especially enjoyed it. He ate appetizers, all of his food, finished off my meal and Jenni's, he ate probably 4 garlic biscuits, salad, and then began to look at the dessert menu. He didn't get any dessert, but later, once we got back to the apartment, he said that he wouldn't mind eating a shake. He decided to wait though,until lunch sunday afternoon.

We had a great time in OK.

Can't wait to show you pics of our trip to the mountains...who would have thought that OK would have such beautiful mountains?!

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

So I have been feeling very lazy these last few months. So after getting myself motivated decided it would be a good idea to start running again

As mentioned several times in the past we live right next to the lake. And beside this lake there is a beautiful trail that goes along beside it. This is actually the same path that Eric and I took our roller blading adventure on.

Anyway...as I said I have been feeling very lazy, exercise wise, so I decided to start running again.

Right after getting off of work, I dash home, change, grab my free IPod, get Jack's leash, put Jack in the car and head off to the lake. When we get there I run the trail with Jack, so far only going a mile and a half each time. (Hopefully I will get up to the whole 5 mile trail eventually.)

After we are done running Jack and I go down to the lake, do a quick lap to the bouy to cool off and cool down. I then convince myself that I feel bad for Jack that I dragged him with me to go running. So I play a quick game of fetch with him. Then we are off to our lovely home before my hubby even gets home from work.

It has been wonderful. I forgot how much I enjoy running.

When I took these pictures, good ole' Jack just kept sitting there giving me these pathetic looks, like, "are we done yet." I am just practicing for when I have kids, trying to get them to sit still.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Parents plan the perfect party prior to parting ways. People were planning on protecting pastimes but instead puttered around the pastor's home for the better part of the prime period Picnicking patiently in perfect weather and prattling precociously to precious pals.

Nolan and Ashlyn previously met and perpetuated their partiality in a pulp outside Pastor and Patti's home!

Friday, August 21, 2009

What a beautiful day it is here in town. Lovely weather and the perfect afternoon to get taken out for lunch.

This afternoon that very thing happened. My parents took me out for lunch, just because.

The old downtown here is so fun. It you have never been, you should. Just taking a walk down the sidewalk and looking into all the stores is a pleasure and it is reminescent of the good ole' days.

So anyway, we went downtown and ate lunch at a cute cafe'.

The cafe' where we ate used to be my dad's very favorite place to take us kids when mom was out of town.

The same ladies work there now as did years ago.

As we left the cafe' we recalled a woman from our church worked at one of the little shops. It is a quaint store. Tons of little trinkets that one can look through and bring home to show off some touristy things that they purchased.

As you can observe, mom and I had a blast looking at all the fun things.

I also found some fun rings. I was thinking about using this ring and substituting it for my lost engagement ring...what do you think. I value your opnion. If the answer is yes, I can go back and buy it for only $.99.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Okay...So if you haven't ever seen the old Disney movie, 'Pete's Dragon' then you cannot truly appreciate the title of this post. But appreciate it or not, that is just the thing to say when referring to Eric and my single wide trailor.When we were first married we, of course, like most newly married couple (yes, I am aware that many of you would say we are still newly married) needed to find furniture to put into our quaint little home. Since Eric had been at college and living in the dorms for 4 years he had acquired some pieces. One being a cushioned rocking, arm chair. And another being a very old couch. (if you have ever been to our trailor you know that sitting on this couch can be hazardous.) It was fairly comfortable besides the fact that you had to get about every fifteen minutes or so to push the cushion back against the back of the couch.side note: I did scrub this lovely couch after we moved in, since it had been in a boys dorm for a few years.Anyway, we had this wonderful tan/peach couch for our first year and enjoyed the time that it spent in our living room.About two weeks ago R and A asked if we would like to have the couch that is in their basement. It was a lot bigger then our couch, but Eric and I figured we could measure it and see if it would fit. Well, since we didn't have a measuring tape (or we were too lazy to get one out) we proceeded to measure by me, laying stretched beside the couch then going home and laying against the wall to see if it would fit. We both decided to try bringing it home.Thanks to the help of R and J we were able to get our dormitory loveseat from the college days moved out and put the fullsized couch into our small little trailor (is that repetitive, small & little?)And, as Eric went off to work one day, I got started on the task of making this new couch of ours fit into our small living room. After much deliberation, and pushing a pulling I was able to find the perfect place for our beautiful new-to-us couch.I even have a small side table to put between our couch and chair. Eric let me buy a new lamp too so when we have people over they can actually tell that the 'side table' is a side table. (which is actually just a small little (there I go again) box I got for Christmas one year)

Are you waiting on baited breath to discover what this new arrangment looks like... and of course, me being the picture freak that I am and always having my camera with me surely took pictures.The answer, yes, I did. But my wonderful husband, who sells things on Ebay and Amazon as a side business, used my camera to take pictures of things to sell and deleted all the pictures off of it. Which, by the way, I said he could. So, tonight when I get home, I will proceed to take a few pictures of our new living room.And if possible I will get a picture of our old couch too, which is now sitting in the parking lot of a thrift store in town so some unsuspecting individual can buy this grand, boys dorm loveseat without even knowing the hazards that it will present to them.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

How often do I take advantage of the fact that I can come before an Almighty God and bring my requests to Him?Isn't it awesome that we, as Christians can offer our requests to God, lay our burdens at His feet, and know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that God hears, knows, and is in absolute control of every situation. I have been challenged over these last few days to take advantage of the fact that......Jesus Christ is my great high priest. He goes before the throne for me.When words are not enough, Jesus pleads for me;what I cannot say, He says;when I can only look down in shame, he lifts me up and shows me grace!Not only have I been challenged in my prayers for my own spiritual growth...what about my prayers lifted up on others behalf.On many occasions Eric and I have discussed our prayer life. It is both of our prayer that we, as Christians, first and foremost, but as individuals and as a couple would lift up the lives of those around us. What better way to build up those in the church or to bring in those who are not a part of the church.Prayer will change lives!

Colossians 4:2-Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful!

Friday, August 7, 2009

What a lovely day it was to take a trek to the lake with the Youth Group. But what started as a lovely afternoon turned into a search for something beautiful... Yes, my lovely engagement ring. We were all playing ball in the water when I jumped up to get it as it was thrown my way. Much to my horrific surprise I felt a small thing fly off my finger and quickly looked down at my hand. Yes, all that was left was my wedding band.

I stood still and said..."guys, my ring just flew off." The kids, trying to be helpful quickly grabbed their goggles and began a search for my missing merchandise. To our dismay and my chagrin their was no ring to be found.

I had given up hope. Until a few hours later after I had gotten home my dad called and says..." Sarah, I can rent a scuba tank...do you want to see if we can take that out to the lake and find it?"

"Of course!"

So my lovely friends and family...Dad, Eric, and Jeff G., made our way back to the lake to see if we could find the general area where we had been playing ball and look for my lost ring.

An hour passed...and absolutely nothing.

As the sun began to set and it slipped down over the horizon

The three divers and myself gave up and said farewell to my dear engagement ring

(Yes, I did get my hair cut...for you observant ones who might have noticed)

Eric, Jack and I, Jenni and Tim, Ryan, A and the boys, and some friends of ours, the Osbornes went canoeing on the Buffalo River on Saturday.

What started out as a very rainy morning ended in a beautiful, not too hot sort of a day.

We had a great time just floating down the river, finding snakes, turtles and really pretty waterfalls.

We also found a fun cliff the Ryan and Eric jumped off of. I didn't mind watching, but I can certainly tell you that I would never do it.

I got a good video of Ryan jumping and was going to get one of Eric, but my camera ran out of batteries. If you look closely you can see Eric getting ready to jump. He is on a cliff a little higher than Ryan.

My sister did, however, get a shot of Eric jumping, so once I get that from her I will post that for your enjoyment!

GRACE

I ask you: "How many times will you pick me up, when I keep on letting you down?And each time I will fall short of Your glory, how far will forgiveness abound?"And you answer: " My child, I love you.And as long as you'reseeking My face, You'll walk in the pow'rof My daily sufficient grace."

sarah.me.wife to a wonderful husband. met at bible college. mom to the most gorgeous baby girl in the world. 'publications director'. learning what it means to disciple and be discipled. slowly learning about photography. teach piano lessons on the side. amatuer song writer.

gemma jaye. born at 34 1/2 weeks. absolutely perfect in every way. fall more and more in love with her sweet self every day

jack. black lab. rescued him when he was only 2 pounds. he nows weighs 65 pounds. fairly obedient thanks to alot of training. loves people.